This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Colby, Arnold, Romberg, Browne, Rechlin Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/wQJ.2ACEB/690 Message Board Post: From the Herald-Palladium Saint Joseph, Michigan (Berrien County) Tuesday, April 25, 1995 Warren Colby (with photo) Warren L. Colby, organist at the Peace Temple United Methodist Church in Benton Harbor for more than 60 years and theater organist before the advent of talking pictures, died Friday night at home in St. Joseph. He was 86. Memorial services will take place at a later date at the Peace Temple, of which he was a member. Memorials may be made to the Peace Temple Warren Colby Organ Fund. The body has been donated to the University of Michigan for medical research. Dey-Florin Chapel, St. Joseph, of Florin Funeral Service is in charge of arrangements. Mr. Colby was born May 12, 1908, in Abbotsford, Wis., and came to St. Joseph in 1926 to become theater organist at the former Caldwell Theatre. He then became organist of the Liberty Theater in Benton Harbor in 1928 and held that position until the advent of talking pictures in 1929. He retired from Whirlpool Corp. where he was a product designer. He was well known as a musician and a long-time pianist with the Harry Diffenderfer Orchestra and played regularly at the former Whitcomb Hotel in St. Joseph. He also taught many local young people to play organ and piano. Besides playing the organ at his own church, he was organist at the First Methodist Church in St. Joseph and First Baptist Church in Benton Harber. In 1987, Mr. Colby was named the first recipient of the St. Joseph Benton Harbor Rotary Club's Frederick S. Upton Volunteer Award. He was a former secretary of the club and previously a member of the board of directors of the Community Concert Series and the board of directors of Twin Cities Symphony. Survivors include his wife, the former Gladys R. Arnold, two daughters, Carol Romberg of Libertyville, Ill., and Sandra Colby Browne of Warren, Mich., four grandchildren and a sister, Evelyn Rechlin of Crystal Lake, Ill.